


Redux

by Rainne



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Banned Together Bingo 2020, M/M, Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24139564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainne/pseuds/Rainne
Summary: FOX News is at it again.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 40
Kudos: 299
Collections: Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020





	Redux

Darcy looked around at the common kitchen. There was no baker in sight, but there were two cakes on the counter, resting beside a huge basket full of what looked like three different types of muffins. There was a pie cooling on top of the stove, _three_ loaves of bread, and a huge Tupperware bin full of chocolate chip cookies. “Steve’s stress baking, huh?”

“FOX News is at it again,” Clint said simply.

Darcy shook her head. “They still haven’t learned from the time with the censors.”

“Apparently not.”

“What’s the topic today? As if I couldn’t guess,” Darcy said, her mouth twisting into a grimace. “The Winter Soldier.”

“Of course it’s the Winter Soldier,” Clint replied, opening the Tupperware and liberating some cookies. He offered one to Darcy, who took it with good cheer. “These days, it’s always the Winter Soldier.”

“You’d think he’d learn,” came the voice of the Soldier in question, entering from the game room door behind Darcy. “Are those chocolate chip?”

In response, Darcy took the Tupperware from Clint and offered it to Bucky. He took a handful of cookies, then wandered to the fridge for milk. “I keep telling him it ain’t worth getting worked up over, but does he listen?”

“Of course not,” Clint replied. “Hey, pour me one, too, will you?”

“Sure. Darce?”

“Yes, please.” Darcy waited until the milk was poured, then grabbed two of the glasses, handing one to Clint and taking a sip out of the other. “So what is it this time?”

“I talked to a child in Central Park,” Bucky replied. “With the dad standing right there and everything.”

“How dare,” Darcy murmured, deadpan.

“Right?” Bucky sighed. “You know, at first I kinda thought I deserved it. You know? I mean, it’s not like I _didn’t do_ the stuff they say I did. But it’s been six years since DC and two years since I was acquitted, and they ain’t letting up, and I’m gettin’ kinda tired of being their punching bag.”

“You don’t deserve it,” Clint said firmly, his voice overlapping Darcy’s as she said the same thing. He continued, “You can’t be held responsible for what you did when you didn’t know which end was up.” He shook his head. “And God knows that was a hard lesson to learn. But I learned it. Finally.”

Bucky nodded. “You know,” he agreed.

For a few minutes, the three of them ate cookies in silence. The contemplative quiet was interrupted, however, by the return of Steve, who was carrying a pair of reusable shopping bags that were bursting full of what proved to be produce. Bucky raised an eyebrow as he watched Steve pull fruits and vegetables out of the bags. “Jesus, Stevie, you get enough?”

“Shut it and help me clear the counter.” Steve made a face at Bucky and the two of them went to work moving all the baked goods out of the way. Shortly, Steve was washing the produce and explaining his dinner plans to his audience. “ – And if you don’t stop eating those cookies, you’ll be too full to appreciate it,” he warned as Darcy reached for another.

“Last one, I swear,” Darcy said, grinning as she took a bite. “They’re so good, though.”

“Thank you.”

“I will say this:” Clint said thoughtfully, “at least the reporters have stopped demanding a comment every time FOX says something ridiculous about Bucky. I was getting tired of that. I already gave my opinion once; is it supposed to change?”

“Sure,” Bucky replied. “You’re supposed to decide I’m irredeemable and a danger to the living, the dead, and national security.”

Steve made a warning noise in the back of his throat, and Darcy reached over to pat his arm. “We all know it’s crap,” she said soothingly.

“I just don’t understand the _point_ of them!” Steve burst out, not for the first time. “They claim to be news, but they’re not news, they’re a bunch of shitty loudmouths with shitty opinions that function as nothing more than the propaganda arm of the shitty right wing _assholes_ trying to _ruin the country_. They don’t _do_ anything worthwhile, they don’t _accomplish_ anything; the best they can do is gin up a bunch of fake controversy over a Black man wearing a tan suit and then convince a bunch of gullible _morons_ that a major, highly contagious and deadly virus is a _hoax_ , and – ”

“Steve, Steve, _breathe,_ ” Bucky said, reaching out to grasp his friend’s shoulders. “You’re gonna stroke out.”

“I’m pretty sure I can’t stroke out,” Steve admitted after a long, slow breath. “But yeah. I was on a little bit of a rant there, wasn’t I?”

“Little bit,” Clint said, holding up his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. “I think you scared Darcy.”

“Scared, hell,” Darcy replied, fanning herself. “You know I get all hot when Steve goes off about the right topics, and that’s one of ‘em. That was the sexiest thing I’ve seen all week, and believe me, I’ve been looking.”

Bucky laughed. “Only you, Darce.”

Darcy grinned. “You love it.”

He blew her a kiss, then gave Steve’s shoulder a gentle shake. “You okay, pal?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay.” Steve sighed. “I just get _so mad._ ”

“I know you do.” Bucky’s voice was soft. “But you ain’t got to. Not over this. I can take whatever they dish out.” He paused, then grinned. “Hell, maybe I oughta tell my PR gal to take ‘em up on their interview request.”

Darcy’s mouth fell open. “They requested an _interview_ with you?”

Bucky nodded. “Standing request from right after the trial concluded,” he said. “Told ‘em no way in hell back then, but they said if I ever changed my mind to let ‘em know.”

“No,” Steve, Darcy, and Clint all chorused. “Don’t do it, man,” Clint continued. “It’s a trap.”

“If you’re going to do media, do friendly media,” Darcy agreed. “I bet Anderson Cooper would give his left arm to have you on.”

Bucky narrowed his eyes at her. “Oh, _ha_ ha.”

She grinned back at him. “Couldn’t resist. Seriously, though, do friendly media. Hell, do the _Daily Show._ ”

Clint hummed. “It’s too bad _The Colbert Report_ isn’t still on. That would’ve been perfect.”

“Oh, man, it really would.” Darcy chewed her lip. “I wonder how a late night show would go.” She considered, then shook her head. “Probably not; that’s too celebrity-ish.”

“If you really want to do media, talk to your PR person,” Clint said firmly. “We can spitball all day, but she’ll know exactly what’s right.” He considered Bucky. “Honestly, though, I wouldn’t even acknowledge the piece. It’s just one of their typical smear jobs.”

Bucky shrugged. “It don’t work me up much,” he admitted. “Like I said, I did the stuff they scream about.”

“You didn’t – ” Steve began, but Bucky interrupted him by the simple expedient of clapping a metal hand over Steve’s mouth.

“I know I didn’t have a choice,” Bucky said. “But I _did it_ , anyway.” He shook his head when Steve tried to speak, voice muffled behind vibranium. “We’ve had this conversation before; I don’t wanna have it again. Let it go, pal.”

Steve’s eyes narrowed and he said something else. Bucky’s eyes widened. “In front of Darcy, even? I oughta wash your mouth out.”

Steve made a rude noise, then pulled away from Bucky’s hand and went back to his dinner preparations. Clint and Darcy shook their heads at the pair’s antics. Darcy said, “If you _do_ decide to go on TV, though, you definitely want to make sure to come out while you’re on the show. And don’t warn them that you’re going to do it, either; just drop it into conversation all casual, like _oh yeah, me and Steve have been together since 1938_ and then FOX News will have something new to froth at the mouth over instead of the same old thing.”

Bucky looked thoughtful.

**Author's Note:**

> For the Banned Together Bingo 2020 square "No Value".


End file.
